City Road

Road crews will close Forest City Road (also called State Road 434) between Orange Avenue and State Road 436 at 10 p.m. Friday.The southwest Seminole County road used by thousands of motorists a day to reach Maitland Boulevard and Interstate 4 could remain closed until 6 a.m. Monday.Construction crews will remove the railroad tracks just south of S.R. 436 and repave the roadway.About 42,000 cars a day use Forest City Road.A detour will route thousands of motorists east along State Road 436 a short distance to Orange Avenue, which runs west back to Forest City Road south of the railroad crossing.

For much of the USL Pro regular season, the Orlando City Soccer Club has enjoyed a comfortable margin atop the points standings. Not anymore. The Lions (10-2-2, 32 points) still sit atop the 13-team league, but their margin is down to one point over the Harrisburg City Islanders and two points over the Richmond Kickers. Orlando City will look to protect, and possibly expand, its advantage when it takes on the Wilmington Hammerheads at 7:30 Wednesday night and the Charleston Battery at 7:30 Friday night.

KARACHI, Pakistan -- An explosion in the restive city of Hyderabad killed at least two people and injured five early today, Pakistani police said. The explosion appeared to have gone off inside a passenger bus traveling along a city road, police said. The injured were transported to local hospitals.

The man found dead early Sunday in the parking lot of an Orange County apartment complex may be an ex-convict from New York, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Deputies found the body of Julio Velez, 35, next to his grey, 2006 Chevrolet Impala outside the Forest Hills Apartments on Forest City Road, a report stated. Investigators think Velez died between 1 a.m. and 6:24 a.m. and said he did not live at the apartments. Details about his death have not been released but the sheriff's office classified it as a homicide.

Seminole County commissioners have accepted an invitation to meet with Winter Springs commissioners to try to resolve differences over the county's interlocal agreement on road impact fees.The city, which passed a year moratorium on all impact fees in the city, opposes the county's plan because Tuskawilla Road is the only city road to be improved.The joint meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday at city hall.

The extension of Maitland Boulevard from Lake Destiny Road in Maitland westward to Forest City Road -- a project expected to accelerate construction in an already busy area of development -- may be open before the end of the year, according to a Florida Department of Transportation official. Sam Thurmond, a district construction engineer, said the $4.39 million, 1.75-mile- long extension was supposed to be finished by March 1987 but is running well ahead of schedule.

Orange County -- Deputies released the name of a man discovered dead along Forest City Road -- the year's 63rd killing in unincorporated Orange County. The body of Dennis Ray McCarty, 41, was found by a passer-by about 7:45 a.m. Tuesday on the west side of the road near Juergensen Drive. He had no known permanent address. McCarty was dressed in work boots, shorts and a T-shirt but had no identification, according to the Sheriff's Office. He died after being attacked with a sharp object.

Drivers today will see the first signs of work on the two-year project to extend Maitland Boulevard west from Forest City Road to U.S. Highway 441.Crews are scheduled to begin moving equipment to the site. Initially, construction will not affect traffic at Forest City Road (State Road 434) and Maitland Boulevard.The 2.7-mile extension will turn Maitland Boulevard into a convenient route for drivers who need to get from Fern Park, Maitland, Forest City and Altamonte Springs to northwest Orlando.

Traffic congestion apparently is something that residents of Seminole County are just going to have to learn to live with.Even though highways are constantly being widened or extended and local streets are added as development pushes into rural areas, the road network's capacity never seems to match demand.Government at all levels -- city, county, state and federal -- is spending millions of dollars every year on road work in Seminole County. Yet, it seems the best that can be done is that congestion gets no worse.

Mad Cow Theatre has replaced "Other Desert Cities" on its season schedule with Athol Fugard's "The Road to Mecca. " The play will augurate Mad Cow's new Black Box theater at 54 W. Church St. "The Road to Mecca," Fugard's Tony award-winning play about an expressive, inspirational South African artist — and the forces that wish to quiet her and celebrate her — opens Oct. 19. In the play, three characters — two Afrikaners and one...

WEATHER The National Weather Service is calling for Tuesday to be cloudy in the morning, with a high near 91 and northwest winds 6 to 11 miles per hour. There is a 60 percent chance of precipitation. Tuesday night is expected to be mostly clear, with a low around 73. TRAFFIC Check our traffic updates for this morning's issues as you plan your commute. FROM LAST NIGHT City school board reinstates fired city principal : The city school board reinstated a principal Monday night who had been fired by CEO Andrés Alonso over alleged cheating at her school.

A city road crew worked into Monday refilling a cavernous sinkhole on East Monument Street that collapsed again amid heavy rains Sunday, but the city is sticking to its forecast of completing repairs about two months from now. A portion of the 2300 block of E. Monument St. between Patterson Park and North Montford avenues was closed to vehicles but open to pedestrians Monday, said Malkia McLeod, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Public...

When Jeffrey Dean Morgan read Mitch Glazer's script for Starz's "Magic City," about a mob-connected Jewish hotelier in the center of the cultural-political-criminal hotbed that was 1959 Miami, what attracted Morgan to the character of Ike was what grounded him, not what threatened him. "He has to play the part of the cool customer at all times and a lot of his position is about image, what he puts out there for people to see," says Morgan....

PEORIA U.S. Route 24 and Illinois Route 29 are about to be diverted away from Downtown Peoria as the city prepares for reconstruction on Washington Street from MacArthur Highway to near Interstate 74. The City Council on Tuesday officially approved a jurisdictional transfer of Route 24 and accepted Washington Street as a city road. In the coming weeks, the Illinois Department of Transportation will officially designate Route 24 and Route 29 into East Peoria, where officials are concerned about an increase in truck traffic.

Orange County deputies are looking for someone who robbed a business on Forest City Road today. The Metro Planet Orlando store at 6870 Forest City Rd. was robbed about 12:15 p.m., the Sheriff's Office reported. Initial reports show a gun was involved in the robbery. Check back for updates.

Plans for development have been scaled downOVIEDOPlans for a controversial development near the Econlockhatchee River have been scaled back.The representatives of River Oaks, a proposed housing development west of the Econ, now say they want to put fewer than 100 homes on 137 acres north of County Road 419. River Oaks initially wanted nearly 150 homes.Richland Properties, the owners, have reduced the project in response to concerns that the development would put too many homes too close to the river.

Have road crews closed off your favorite shortcut to work and left you wondering when the work will be completed?Now, if you have a computer and Internet service, you can find out which Orlando roads will be closed - and for how long - because of construction projects or special events such as a parade or a 5K race.Orlando's Transportation Engineering Bureau has expanded the city's Web site to include its road closing report at at www.ci.orlando.fl.us/After logging on to the site, users will have to click on the public works icon on the left side of the page, click on the traffic signal and then click on the special events and permits section, where they will find the road closings status report.

Orange County deputies are asking for the public's help to identify a man who shot and killed a local CD vendor on Forest City Road last week. Detectives say the victim, Larry Aikens, was standing in front of his car arguing with the suspect around 9:40 p.m. last Friday before he was shot. Deputies said the shooter, known as 'Neal C' or 'For Real,' ran to his own car, grabbed a handgun and shot Aikens. The shooter than chased down a second man who tried to intervene and shot him. The second victim was hospitalized but is expected to recover.

Deputies say an argument at an Orange County music shop turned deadly late Friday. Deputies were called to a shooting at a strip mall on Forest City Road near Kennedy Avenue just before 9:40 p.m. Investigators say a vendor at the shop, later identified as 40-year-old Larry Aikens, got into an argument with a man. When the argument became heated, deputies say the unidentified man pulled out a gun and shot Aikens. Deputies say the suspect then shot the Aikens' brother when he tried to come to the Aikens' aid. Aikens was later pronounced dead.